Both Katy and I are always giddy with excitement when we realize we are typically both booked out at least three months in advance. We are thrilled with some of our students in the Web Designer Beauty School when they say they’re starting to get booked out too!

I can tell you that the work that goes into being booked out months in advance, and finding the dreamy clients who are happy to wait is a dance. It’s flowing + moving + stretching all of the time.

Today, I want to talk about three smart strategies we’ve both used in the past to fill our own client dockets with dream clients.

You can use these same three strategies to help fill in your own!

1. Dive into your metrics

Hop into your newsletter metrics and investigate who is opening your newsletters the most. Notice the kind of campaigns that you’re sending to them that gets them to open your newsletters.
I’ll bet there will be some golden threads that tie each of the women together who are opening and enjoying your newsletters. This is your opportunity to discover what they are!

Send each member of your subscriber list an individual and personal email asking them to do you a favour. Tell them how much you enjoy having them a part of your community and that you’re looking to hone your offerings and you’re asking for feedback from perfect fit clients just like her.

Then develop a series of five questions to gather feedback. You could include ones like:

a. What initially grabbed your attention about my website/brand?
b. Was there any service you were hoping to see that I offer but didn’t see in your price range?
c. What is preventing you from hiring me right now?
d. What interests you in my products/services?
e. What do you need from me to make web design easier?

BOOM — you’ll get some valuable feedback you need and will be able to tweak your offerings as needed.

2. Find out where your dream clients hang out online and start showing up there.

Answer questions for free. Be generous, kind, and supportive. There are TONS of Facebook communities where entrepreneurs are hanging out these days. These are great watering holes where you can find the exact kinds of people you’re longing to work with. Start checking them out and become a part of the conversation. One caveat: please remember this exercise is about building your expertise and relationships, NOT selling. Resist any inclination to pitch your offerings each time you show up. By showing up as you and answering as many questions as you can for free, you are more likely to get inquiries because you’re being you! People will feel the ick from you if you start being sales-y. This is about attracting, not repelling!

3. Be clear, not clever.

One of the things I’ve seen time and time again is business owners investing their time into copy that doesn’t speak to their audience. They have paid hundreds of dollars to someone to make them sound how they THINK they should sound instead of articulating their own voice and letting their own natural and innate personality come through.

What should you do? Keep your navigation and content smart, simple & intuitive. Instead of saying, “nifty news updates”, call it what it is, your BLOG. Instead of calling yourself a brilliant business online optimizer, stick with what your clients are searching for — a web designer and developer. You can absolutely add in what you really do after you deliver your clear statement (and optimize the sh*t out of these h1 and h2 tags). You see, they’re looking for a web designer and if they can find one whose unique experiences, strengths, personality, and process lights them up, they’ll definitely be one of the ones who will wait months to work with you.

What do YOU think? What other strategies have you used that have helped you fill your docket with dream clients? Share this post on social media and tell us about it.

Yes, to the copy that sounds like you! I’m in this one right now. I’ve written my site myself and think I now should “farm it out” when really i think I just need to record a conversation I have with someone else about what I do. I’m flow so much better when I speak than I feel I do on my website.